Monday, October 5, 2015

Legalizing Marijuana in Alaska - Continued

As noted in a November post from last year and followed up in February of this year, Alaska is struggling
with its legalization of marijuana. Medical pot has been legal since 1998.
However, use by your average Smokin’ Joe Schmuckatelli remained illegal until
voters passed Ballot Measure Number 2 last November. There was great
doobie-lation by those who favored legalization, but as soon as the smoke
cleared it quickly became evident things would not progress quickly, or
smoothly.

Private use and growing were
not legal until February, but the rules were simple: private individuals can
possess up to one ounce of pot and can grow up to six plants, provided only
three are flowering (mature). However, as the law states, “Cultivation shall be
in a location where plants are not subject to public view without use of
binoculars, aircraft, or other optical aids.” Guess there’s concern about bud
envy.

To say the very least, the legal
marijuana trade in Alaska has experienced some growing pains over the past
year.

First, exactly who was
going to oversee the cannabis commerce had to be decided. Regulation was
initially assigned to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC). The ABC’s first
move was to issue a temporary emergency regulation on where weed consumption
was allowed by defining the word “public.” Once that definition and regulation
was passed, ABC quickly abandoned ship and the Marijuana Control Board (MCB) was
established. Adopting the temporary “public” regulation as permanent was the
first official act of MCB… sort of. In some manner or fashion that I think most
people missed, MCB indicated they would adopt it. Being temporary, it was set
to expire in June, but it wasn’t officially
adopted until October. (You know how it is… the whole marijuana thing gives
people problems with time perception. Meh. Better late than never.)

Set to expire in June '15 - better late than never.

Okay, so why did ABC pass
the joint to MCB? The logic behind creating a separate control board was explained
by ABC Director Cynthia Franklin, “Theoretically, those
industries could be competing industries. They might be competing for the same
‘altered state’ dollars.” Oddly enough, however, ABC and MCB share
staff, most notably Director Franklin. Oh, and did I mention ABC had enough
ideas to pass along proposed regulations for marijuana?

So, in May the law
authorizing the MCB was officially signed, and MCB was given a pile of proposed
regulations for commercial marijuana production and sales. They were also given
a deadline of November 24 to rewrite the regulations, put them out for public
comment and then officially adopt them. Things are going right down to the
wire. But should MBC fail to get the regs out there is a Plan B: If the state
fails to produce the regulations by November 24, local governments are going to
magically produce their own regulations.

“D’oh! We couldn’t get the
regs ready. We have to fall back to Plan B: home-grown rules.”

Frankly, I’m beginning to
think there’s been quite a bit of private use going on in Juneau.

5 comments:

Great post full of useful tips! My site is fairly new and I am also having a hard time getting my readers to leave comments. Analytics shows they are coming to the site but I have a feeling “nobody wants to be first. Link Building Service

Legalizing Marijuana in Alaska is official? This is pretty shocking like shared at expertseedbank.com site as well. Private use and growing were not legal until February, but it is all changing now, shocking.

Legalizing Marijuana in Alaska is official? This is pretty shocking like shared at expertseedbank.com site as well. Private use and growing were not legal until February, but it is all changing now, shocking.

As there are lots of health benefits with marijuana or cannabis, the authority should approve it for medical use. Though it should control strictly to ensure misuse. Thanks~ Rob Smith from atlasplanttrainer.com

This is a great inspiring article.I am pretty much pleased with your good work.You put really very helpful information. Keep it up. Keep blogging. Looking to reading your next post. Buy Weed Online Canada